Whale graveyard dating back five million years discovered
Scientists have found an enormous underwater necropolis spanning 1,200km (745 miles) in the southeastern Indian Ocean, roughly 7km deep in the Diamantina fracture zone.
Using 32 dives, the international team—comprising researchers from China, Italy and New Zealand—collected fossils from 485 sites and uncovered remains dating back 5.3 million years, the oldest whale on record discovered there.
Among the finds is a beaked whale, Pterocetus benguelae, from the Miocene epoch and a new species dubbed Pterocetus diamantinae, named after the graveyard location. The biggest carcass was a five‑metre Antarctic minke whale.
“The size of distribution, the depth and the age range were far beyond what we had imagined,” said Xiaotong Peng, a lead author from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Scientists warn the site’s limited accessibility suggests many more discoveries await, potentially opening a new frontier for deep‑sea biology.
